Applause: Bummer

BMP & Jeff: Yes, it was Ferry, thanks. My CD vendor at the flea market smiled and nodded his head when I asked him if I could exchange it, he apparently felt the same way about this particular recording. In regard to noise (not necessarily audience noise) in recordings, I find that sometimes the music itself and the performance over power the annoyance of such noise. One example of this is the two CD set issued by Pearl of Gershwin Plays Gershwin (I just picked it up yesterday at the flea and compared it to another issue that I have). Lots of pops, cracks and static, but the material and performance is so good that I only notice it at the beginning and at the end of the songs. I used to have a vinyl copy of Louis Armstrong that was transferred over from cylinders/tubes (that preceded flat records, I believe) and the same was true of this album that I used to listen to all the time. I also love live recordings when they are done well, some of which include "Hell" mentioned above, various Cowboy Junkies cuts and Pink Floyd (PF needs to be played rather loud for some reason). My wife will occasionally borrow my cigarette lighter when I am listening to the Pink Floyd CD, stand in the middle of the living room and ignite the lighter over her head (which is her polite way of asking me to turn it down a little).

In response to Sugarbrie, I nominate the applause track from the Stakatto disc from way back (the one with various instruments and, my favorite, the crystal glassware being thrown against the wall). A couple of minutes of a huge ovation--just what you need when you're feeling beaten down at the end of the day!

Realistic sounding applause is not any more difficult to reproduce than any other sound. What most of the above posts are really commenting upon is the poor quality of the recording of audience applause. In a typical live recording setup, everything possible is done to eliminate audience noise (applause is included in this category). At some point during the concert when the band is not playing, the engineers "bleeds" crowd applause into the recording. This sample of applause is then edited, EQ'd, compressed and then reinserted throughout the final mix of the "live" recording. If you hear sudden changes in sound level whenever the applause kicks in, then they probably used this technique.

Hey Blbloom, I agree about Clapton "24 nights" - that was a great tour and the cd sounds pretty good, not compressed. He hasn't moved me much since Journeyman although back to the cradle has some good moments.

Applause on Jazz at the Pawnshop can sound very realistic and the music sounds fine, too. How about, indeed, having one or more legal friends stand in front of your system and applaud to see what the room does with it, just for kicks?